Prisoner of the Magic Kingdom
by s.s.sam.double.s
Summary: Being trapped on "It's a Small World" would be hard for anyone. But what could it do to a guilt-ridden divorced dad trying to reconnect with his kids?


Prisoner of the Magic Kingdom

Sam Scott

AN: Well, never expected to become a "Dark Disney stories" guy, but those were the two pieces I've done that seemed appropriate for FanFic. This is a work in progress that I'm hoping to submit to my school's literary magazine. It's my first try doing something this dark, and, knowing how full this website is of mature content handled in immature ways, I would appreciate any criticisms you have for me. Other than that… SUM OF DIS STORY IS XTREMLY SCRAY. VIOWER EXCRETION ADVISD

_all it's a small world after all it's a small world after all it's a small…._

It had become white noise by this point. Jake M. Hall had been sitting in his little boat in the trench of Crayola-blue water for… for… the truth is, he had been there for enough time for time itself to lose its meaning.

He preferred to think of how the day began. It was first visitation with his beautiful sunheaded children since the divorce. He thought LA wasn't the best place for children. Besides, he felt he needed to do something to make up for… that was something he preferred not to think about. But to prove he was a changed man, he wanted them to enjoy the best possible weekend. And with a park calling itself the Happiest Place on Earth within a day's drive…

_of laughter a world of tears and a world of hope and a world of _

Happiest my ass, he thought, not being able to remember any time he had felt more miserable. No. Focus. Besides, he thought, it can't be much longer until they get us out. But the kids were happy when they walked under that redbrick gateway. The square was flooded with mice, mermaids, rabbits, dwarfs, knights, pirates, tigers, lions and penguins. Lily was darting all around faster than her father could keep up with her. She finally stood still long enough for him to catch up when she saw an enormous, fluffy yellow bear in her path. She stood, uncertain for a moment, before wrapping herself around his ankles. David pulled out a little yellow legal pad and, without looking above the ground, gave it to the man in the yellow bear suit to sign. His father did his best to get David to look up – to look him in the eye. He lifted David up to the bear's eye level. The boy held his gaze with the mask's unmoving button eyes, until the man beneath it shuffled off to deal with someone less confrontational. As Jake led David off, he broke off to see a hyena, its face frozen mid-laugh. It was hunched like a buzzard, its wild-eyed, tongue-lolling face jutting out from where his real chest would be. The hyena clumsily scrawled an E and a D onto the legal pad.

"I like the hyenas," David said, to no one in particular. "If, like, the lions had been better with him, maybe Scar couldn't a, uh, taken over."

_much that we share that it's time we're_

He tried to cheer his son up. He told David he could have his pick of anything in any store along Main Street. He said he didn't want anything, so Dave got him a big vinyl statue of Br'er Rabbit leaning on a stump on their way out of Splash Mountain. The clerk took his soggy money and David regarded the smiling animal with no emotion at all, good or bad. He wiped the water out from above his lip and said "Don't know why they have all this Br'er Rabbit stuff here anyway. He's not even a Disney movie." Jake was thinking frantically now. He was going to see David smile by the end of the day whatever he had to do.

_and one golden sun and a smile means friendship for every_

So he decided he would take David and Lily on the ride that had been his favorite when he first came here with his own father. He remembered Carrie telling him how it had made her mother cry. He never understood that – it just seemed like a silly little showcase of happy dolls. Still, he couldn't think of anything better to cheer up David. In his desperation, he forgot David's insistence on avoiding the "girly rides" in Fantasyland. At least Lily was happy to get on board the little white boat, jumping, laughing and everything.

_world after all it's a small small world_

It fit his luck – or karma, given what he had done – that the ride broke down just as they were passing through Africa. The treadmill that locked their boat on its preapproved journey stopped dead in the water. A pale, shaggy young man in a waistcoat and a bowtie popped up the bars that confined the other passengers in their boats and let them out. As Jake waited impatiently for his release, the man walked right past him.

"Hey!" Jake shouted. "What are you doing?"

The man looked at him through light blue eyes ringed with dark grey.

"You're next," he said in his Darth Vader voice before shuffling off.

"Next?" Jake shouted. "Why not now?"

"Soon," said the man, his voice echoing through the corridor, his face long since gone.

_after all it's a small_

"Soon," of course was apparently code for "next year." So he sat in the tunnel as the dolls sang their helium-pitched song. The melody bled into discordant notes from the rooms behind and ahead of them, turning the song into a cacophony of phony joy. This was only made worse by the cackling that echoed through the room. He had decided it was supposed to be the sound of hyenas, and remembered the stooped creature he had met when he entered the park. David hadn't said a word since the boat left harbor, and Jake could not help but admire his dedication. Lily had fallen asleep, leaving him with little to do but stare at the glowing eyes of the blue hippo and the leering faces of drum-playing giraffes.

_it's a world of laughter a world of tears_

And that song – it was neverending, as constant as the rotation of the earth that the dolls tried to convince you was so happy and innocent. Notice you don't see the little American dolls killing the Arabs on their flying carpets for oil…

_it's a world of hope and a world of fears and a world of fears and a world of fears and a world of fears and a world of fears and a_

Fantastic. Now the dolls have broken down too. Like they weren't repetitive enough already, like that little boy in the loincloth whose head kept popping off and back on, off and back on. How they got away with putting that on a kids' ride, he would never know.

_Jacob _said a voice like the air leaving a balloon. _Listen to us, Jacob_

Ah. He was hearing things now. Well, it was only a matter of time. Then he realized that all the dolls had stopped moving, except for one, lying crushed on the ground with springs and gears sticking from its body like knives from Caesar. It turned its one-eyed face to look at him, and its mouth moved in time with the words Jake heard.

_You have been very wicked, Jacob._

The head-popping doll came back to life and they both said, in perfect unison.

_Very wicked, Jacob. Very wicked indeed._

Jake watched as a cleat came loose from the boat behind him, smashing the heads of four dolls over and over again, with pendulum precision. Each of them joined in, as more and more of the cold machinery that animated their lips became visible.

_We can't have wicked men here, Jacob._

From high up in the rafters, a little alpine doll tumbled, splintering his wooden body, and was towed back again by an invisible force to fall again.

_Especially not wicked men who hurt children, Jacob._

A little blue train, billowing cotton smoke puffs, slammed into another doll, dragging it along the shore on its underside until it was nothing but a paste of splinters and molten metal.

"Who are you?" Jake asked, unable to think of anything else to say.

_We all died here, Jacob. We think now, you will too._

Jake frantically tried to pry up the metal bar that locked him in his boat. Another doll sprung to life, adding his voice to the accusing choir. It was floating in the water, inches from Jake, so pale it was almost blue.

_Don't try to leave, Jacob. You must stay until we are done with you. _

Jake watched as another doll rose from the pile of inert figures. It pointed one of its delicate fingers at him as it popped off and on, off and on.

"Alright," he said. It sounded much braver in his head. "Then what are you going to do to me?"

_We must punish you, Jacob. _By this point there were so many inhuman voices that they sounded less like a choir and more like an organ. _We must punish you for what you did._

"No you have no right to-to do that. I've… suffered enough for, um, um, what I did."

_No, Jacob. No suffering is enough for your crimes, Jacob._

"No! You don't understand! You can't hold me accountable for that. I-I wasn't my –"

_Or maybe you were yourself, Jacob. Maybe that is your real self, and you only pretend to be a decent human being._

"I – I – I…"

_Poor little Jacob. He even fooled himself._

"Well… if that was my real self, then I beat him."

_Have you, Jacob?_

"I've been sober for three months. My wife gave me visitation rights again!"

_So you're cured, Jacob? Is that why you had to come to a place where you can't buy alcohol, Jacob?_

"No! I wanted someplace my kids would be happy."

_Well. _Are _the children happy, Jacob?_

David shot upright. If the laws of nature still applied in this place, he would have broken his back. His eyes were as round and as rigid as the eyes of the dolls, and looked possessed in the red light.

_Daddy _he said, in the same organ voice that the dolls had used. _I am ashamed of you, daddy. You aren't even human, daddy. You are just a devil hiding in a man's skin. Maybe we should send you back to hell, daddy._

Jake was reduced to a quaking plate of gelatin, as his eyes, nose, and open mouth each began to leak.

_I saw what you did to mommy, daddy. Is that why she left you? Did she need me to get hurt to see how wicked you are, daddy?_

"David, David," Jake choked. "I'm not the same daddy I was that night. I'm better now! I'm different!"

_We don't care who you are, Jacob. We only care what you did._

"That…that…"

_We must call up the next witness now, Jacob._

Lily, too, sat up and stared at him. Her clear blue eyes looked like white-hot fire.

_You think I still love you, daddy. But really, I am just too stupid to understand what you did. Someday, I will be older, daddy, and then I will know. And then, neither me nor David will ever speak to you again._

"Oh, Lily… Lily… Don't say that, Lily. Don't say tha-a-a-at." He began sobbing as if he were no older than her.

_There is still one more witness, Jacob._

"Oh. Oh thank God. Carrie, I love her, she understands, she understands…"

_We are sure she does, Jacob. Look up, Jacob._

"Carrie!" Jake shouted. "You won't believe what… no."

A red chord lowered from the deep shadows of the ceiling. Tied to it was a tiny, red, mangled little child. The chord looped from his stomach and around his neck.

_You killed me, daddy._

"No."

_Before I even got to be alive._

"No."

_Why did you hit mommy so hard, daddy?_

"Stop."

_ I could have lived to be an old man, daddy._

"Stop."

_You could have taught me to read, daddy._

"Stop."

_And to play football, daddy._

"Stop."

_I wish I had gotten to play with Lily and David._

"Stop it."

_You never saw my graduation, daddy._

"Stop!"

_Or watched me move out._

"Stop!"

_I could have taken care of you, daddy._

"Stop!"

_When you got old and sick, daddy._

"Stop!"

_Daddy. Do you even know my name._

Jake's voice crescendoed to a shriek.

"Stop it! Stop it, Jacob! Your name is Jacob. Your name is Jacob Hall junior!"

_That's right, daddy. Because I was old enough for you to see my boy parts. I was old enough to feel it when you hit mommy._

Jake collapsed against the iron bar.

"Just… give me whatever punishment you planned already. It can't be worse than this."

_We can't do that, Jacob. That is for the Judge to do, Jacob._

The rides clanked back to life ad the boat lurched through the dark water. Jake arrived in an enormous rooms, full of more of the little devil-dolls than he had ever wanted to see. Each of them was wearing the same ghostly white that enveloped the room. Hanging high above them was the enormous round face of the sun, circled by uneven, jagged rays, with glowing, unblinking eyes. It spoke with a voice as deep as the abyss.

**What are the charges?**

The hundreds of dolls spoke in unison, so loud that it made the Africa room seem like a group of two or three: _We will now tell you with your permission your honor, if you are willing to hear us._

Do not listen to the dolls.

**Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth**

They are lying.

_Jacob committed his heinous crime while intoxicated_

He was drunk. Drunk enough to black out and forget what had happened.

_Jacob met his wife, Caroline, at the door to his room at 1 AM_

They had argued over his drinking before.

_She accused Jacob, your honor, of spending the night with another woman_

The dolls never mentioned that he was accused falsely.

_He began to shout at her, in the foulest language_

She shouted fist.

_Caroline backed away from him_

Towards the stairs.

_This greatly angered Jacob. He immediately struck her in the face with enough force to draw blood_

He pulled back before he could give more than a light blow. The blood came later.

_He then grabbed her by the throat_

But the force of the blow was still enough to knock her down the stairs.

_And proceeded to punch her repeatedly in the stomach_

Jake had never touched his unborn child.

_Thus causing the trauma that led to his own child's miscarriage_

Jake had always assumed he was to blame.

_He then bent her over and hit her repeatedly in the head with a nearby book until she passed out_

Carrie could not correct him because she had also blacked out.

_He committed unspeakable tortures on her limp body_

So the dolls could say whatever they wanted.

_And threw her down the stairs_

By this point, Jake had collapsed on the floor.

_His son, David, immediately called the police, worried what would happen if his parents fought again_

Nothing like this had ever happened before.

_The police immediately understood what had happened_

They were wrong.

_But he managed to escape losing nothing but his marriage_

The court determined that there were too many factors to prosecute Jake.

_And was never punished for the murder of his unborn child_

But Jake could not believe in his own innocence. The miscarriage only deepened his guilt.

_Now what, your honor, is your verdict_

**First the sentence, **the sunjudge said, as his painted-on smile curved around his cheeks, **then the verdict**

The children were whisked out of the boat by invisible hands as it roared back to life. Jake rode, every nerve in his body on edge, as the boat passed the enormous postcards that marked the end of the ride.

"Oh thank God," Jake thought. "At least they're letting me go."

Except when he emerged, he didn't see the sidewalk and blue sky of Anaheim. He was in a gray wasteland, floating along a river that glowed dully with the color of molten metal. Ahead of him, he saw the river leading down another tunnel into inky blackness. The boat lurched and sent him barreling down the waterfall into the dark.

As Jake's eyes adjusted to the dark, he saw another tunnel ahead of him, this one covered in teeth his two glowing green eyes above it. He heard the jaws snap shut as he passed under. The boat tipped and threw him out onto the hard, uneven cement on either side of the river. He was in some kind of cement cave, as pools of fire bubbled around him. He looked up and saw a cardboard cutout of a bewigged judge with the wings and horns of a demon. Two of the dolls he hoped he had left behind swooped in behind him on red, paper wings. One had a branding iron, and the other a red-hot pitchfork. For days on end, they brought their torture instruments down on his smoking skin. But Jake had been right. This was better than being accused by his children in the red room.

"I can't believe this," said a park worker who watched as the boats lurched back into their places in the dock. "How the fuck did they just _miss_ somebody?"

"I say it's the interns," said another worker at her shoulder. She shook David by the shoulder.

"Hey, sleepy head. Ride's over."

"Oh, hallelujah," David said as the iron bars shot up with a _shunk. _"I thought we'd never get out. C'mon sis. We made it out."

"Oh?" she said, as if she was sleep-talking. She turned to Jake. "Hey daddy! We're back."

Jake was clearly asleep, but his eyes were wide open. One of the workers has said he looked like he was in deep shock.

"Excuse me sir," the worker said. "We need you to get out of the boat."

She shook him lightly. Jake came back to life with a spasm and a blood-curdling scream.

"Um, sir?" she asked.

Jake leaped out of the boat, grabbed his children as tightly as he could, and ran far away from the small world.

"Should we call someone?" one of the workers asked.

"Nah. An hour in there would do that to anybody."

Jake bought his kids ice cream bars and drove away. Even Lilly was happy to get away from the park. He called Carrie to explain she would need to pick up the kids early, and repeatedly refused to say why. He sent his children off, kissed his ex-wife goodbye, and tried to sleep. The next morning, he checked himself into a mental hospital. He says he is making real progress on his guilt, and his doctor seems to be close to explaining his hallucination.

They still cannot explain the regular pattern of burned puncture points and letters they found on his body.


End file.
